The revelation of antimatter came to support the concepts of modern physics, as its theory made the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics compatible. This happened in 1928, when Paul Dirac, an English physicist, proposed the Relativistic Electron Theory.
This theory showed mathematically that the existence of energy in the form of photons was possible due to the interaction and then the destruction between electrons and antielectrons.
The idea was more consistently believed in in 1932, when physicist Carl Anderson identified the positron (name given to the then antielectron), after getting energy photons that were produced in a bubble chamber, through a beam of rays cosmic.
In the same year the neutron was discovered by the English physicist James Chadwick. An uncharged particle with a mass approximately equal to that of a proton.
The neutron discovery came to alleviate the anxiety of the scientific community, which was thinking of changing the principles of classical physics in order to to find results compatible with the researches then carried out, as the objective was to make the structure of the atom and its nucleus something more understandable.
The concern to understand the atomic model was due to the fact that they thought that the atom was made up only of protons and electrons, which in this way the made unstable, but after the discovery of the neutron there was a reformulation in the electronic structure and then the atomic model was completed, now stable, used until today.
The discovery of the nucleus shows us that its matter is very concentrated and its density very high. But despite the high concentration, the nucleons (protons and neutrons present in the nucleus) are also distributed in layers like the electrons in the atom.
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By Talita A. angels
Graduated in Physics
Brazil School Team
Modern physics - Physics - Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
ANGELS, Talita Alves dos. "From antimatter to the current model of the atom"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/fisica/da-antimateria-ao-modelo-atual-atomo.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
